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315 





SHIPPING BEES. 



A Beginners" Experience in Re- 

 eelving and Caring for Tiieni. 



A Letter tcrUten (o the Shlpptr. 

 BY JOHN HILL. 



The bees were very nearly starved 

 when they came to Norton ; there the 

 express agent, by mistake, sent them 

 to a man having a very similar name, 

 and when he In-unght them back, there 

 happened to be an apiarist in the office 

 who asked whose bees they were. 

 After examining tliem he said they 

 were almost starved, and he would 

 feed them. He bought some sugar, 

 made syrup, took the bees into a room, 

 let them out of the box, fed them, and 

 then put tliem back again. If it had 

 not been for this man, all the bees 

 would have died, before they reached 

 me ; and then thej' got no more to eat 

 until they came here. 



I made some syrup for them at once. 

 and they seemed to be almost starved. 

 It was interesting to see how quickly 

 they licked up large drops of it. 



When I had their hive made, the 

 comb foundation had not come yet, so 

 I put them into the hive with empty 

 frames. When I took them out of the 

 box, I found one comb entirely broken 

 loose from the frame, and as dry as if 

 thei'e never had been any honey on it. 

 The next frame to that one was broken 

 and bent to one side, and a part of it 

 was loose at the top, with a veiy little 

 honey in it. The other frame was all 

 right, and had the queen on it. 



I put the comb with the queen in the 

 middle of the hive, the comb that was 

 partly broken next to it, and filled the 

 rest of the hive with empty frames. 

 This was early in the morning. There 

 was very nearlj- two handfuls of dead 

 bees in the bottom of the box, which 

 appeared to be mostly young bees. 

 There was a little bunch of bees that 

 did not hold to the combs when I took 

 them out, so I brushed them out of the 

 box on the alighting-board of the hive, 

 and they all wont in. 



The whole operation was performed 

 without receiving one sting. I was 

 very much gratified, for I expected to 

 be stung before I was through. They 

 crawled all over my hands, and never 

 appeared to sting me. I then sat down 

 on the gra.ss, with my nose almost to 

 the hive-entrance, to see what they 

 would do. I soon noticed that some 

 of them came out of the hive and flew 

 away, and before 10 a.m. they were 

 returning loaded with pollen. They 

 worked hard, but paid no attention to 

 me, though I was almost in their way. 



Everything appeared to be going on 

 like clock-work ; but between 1 and 2 

 p.m. they surprised me, by commenc- 



ing to come out of tlie hive until about 

 one-third of them were out, and kept 

 flying around my head as thougli they 

 wanted to alight on it. They finally 

 alighted on a bunch of grass about 12 

 feet from the hive. I do not know 

 what was the matter. The other bees 

 did not seem to pay any attention to 

 them. They came out of the hive and 

 flew right througii the othei-s, and 

 came back loaded. After all had set- 

 tled on the bunch of grass, I carried 

 them back to the hive, but some would 

 return to the grass. I carried the most 

 of them to the hive with my hands, 

 and at sundown I had all but about a 

 table-spoonful of the bees to stay in 

 hive, but those would go back to the 

 grass everj- time. So I thought if 

 they were determined to cluster there, 

 they might. Early the next morning 

 there was not a bee on the grass. I 

 think that when night came they went 

 to the hive. 



The second day everything was all 

 right ; but the third day there seemed 

 to be more trouble. There was from 

 three to six bees at the entrance that 

 seemed to be angry, strutting around 

 with their backs up, taking notice of 

 every bee that went in and out, and 

 " cuflang" them. Some of the bees 

 were so weak that they could hardly 

 rise from the alighting-board, and 

 those they would kill. I saw them 

 kill five or six, and a good many more 

 were dead on the grass. This con- 

 tinued for about three days, when it 

 ceased ; while it continued there would 

 be a buzzing in the hive at times, but 

 all the time they were busy at work. 

 Not knowing anj'thing about bees, I 

 knew not what the trouble was. I be- 

 came greatly interested in the whole 

 business ; but I concluded that these 

 bees were so nearly starved that they 

 were weak and unable to work, and 

 the strong bees killed them. All the 

 dead ones seemed to be young bees. 

 After this trouble was ended, all went 

 well with them, and the buzzing in the 

 hive ceased. 



After they were in the hive about 

 ten days, the feeder, smoker and comb 

 foundation arrived ; then I made more 

 frames and filled them with founda- 

 tion. I opened the hive and found 

 that the broken comb had fallen down. 

 I took it out, and there was about half 

 a tea-cupful of honey in it. They had 

 commenced to build comb in one of 

 the empty brood-frames. This frame 

 I did not take out, but I removed all 

 the empty ones, and filled the hive 

 with frames of foundation. 



Up to this time I think there was not 

 more than one-third of the bees a live, 

 caused by starvation and rough usage. 

 I had received but one sting from 

 them, and that was when I gave them 

 comb foundation. 



all over my liands, and one of them 

 got under my wrist-band and stung 

 me on the wrist. From the time the 

 killing of bees was over, they worked 

 with th(! greatest industi-y, but there 

 was no more than about two handfuls 

 of them left. 



When thc^y had been in the hive for 

 about 20 ilays, I saw the first full- 

 blooded Italian bees appear ; they 

 multiplied very rapidly, and about 

 Oct. 1 the hive seemed to be full of 

 young bees, not one of the old ones 

 remaining. I believe that they will do 

 very well in this country, and I do not 

 think that bees could do much better 

 in any countrj' than these have done, 

 considei'ing what the}- had to endure. 



Furnas Co., Nebr. 



CALIFORNIA. 



Keeping Bee§ in a Salubrious 

 Climate. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY A. D. STOCKING. 



I left Cedar Beach, Ind., on Dec. 22, 

 1887, the weather being very cold 

 there, and the bees all shut up in their 

 winter quarters. I arrived in National 

 City, San Diego Co., Calif., in the 

 evening of Dec. 29, and what a con- 

 trast there was ! 



The following morning I found 2 

 colonies of bees, and they were flying 

 all day, and seemed to be bringing in 

 some honey. I do not think that there 

 have been ten days since I came here, 

 that bees have not been out, and now 

 they are very busy getting both pollen 

 and honey. Cultivated flowers have 

 been in bloom outrof-doors all winter, 

 such as geraniums, pansies, roses, 

 candy-tuft, mignonette, etc., and now 

 the country looks beautiful in its car- 

 pet of green — beautiful with its mj'r- 

 iads of variegated wild flowers, with 

 peaches and apricots in full bloom, and 

 many other fruits are now (March 22) 

 coming into bloom. 



The weather, since I have been here, 

 has been like beautiful spi-ing and fall 

 weather of the East. In January we 

 had a few frosts ; on three nights ice 

 formed on water outrof-doors, and the 

 ground froze lightly, yet vegetation 

 was but slightly injured. The orange 

 and lemon blossoms were not injured, 

 nor the flowers blooming out-of-dooi-s. 

 The influence of the ocean breezes pre- 

 vents injury from frosts. 



National City is situated on the east 

 side of San Diego Bay, and we can 

 look across the bay to the west and see 

 vessels passing, and the surf breaking 

 on the low beach that separates the 



Bay from the ocean. We are sur- 

 They were crawling ' rounded by mountains on three sides. 



